America's private police force

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

You don't have a clue what this topic is all about do you ?

Sure I do. The post was directed at you firewall. Say 'whatever'.

[MothBalls]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

You don't have a clue what this topic is all about do you ?

Conspiracy theories, paranoia, The Enquirer, tabloid journalism, fear mongering, basic crapola.....

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by CastleBravo

Sure I do. The post was directed at you firewall. Say 'whatever'.

So it was just a cheap shot at me when you didn't have anything to add to the thread huh ?

[Dowly]

@FW

Are you surprised?

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

So it was just a cheap shot at me when you didn't have anything to add to the thread huh ?

It was no more than a response to your attempt to belittle my post.
Are we even now? Press the reset button and all that?

[SteamWake]

Would you mind keeping the personal sniping out of this thread please?

Thanks

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by OneToughHerring

Yea well, we've been privatizing like hell here in Finland lately, seems like it's all been a big mess. Hasn't been the success that the conservative coalition party of Finland touted it would be.

The problem is the benchmarks for both government and private companies.

In government, the result usually doesn't matter if you can spin it to make it seem positive.

In private companies, results don't usually matter if you can profit from it.

That's why I agree with privatization, mostly - and government regulation, in the cases that most directly affect the public business. Let the private companies use their approach to dollars and cents efficiency, while the government assures quality.

note the change in the logo and the ... well... Arabian music

Must increase holdings in companies selling tin foil.

[SteamWake]

In a loosely related story...

Police stop more than 1 million people on street

Police in major U.S. cities stop and question more than a million people each year - a sharply higher number than just a few years ago. Most are black and Hispanic men. Many are frisked, and nearly all are innocent of any crime, according to figures gathered by The Associated Press.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091008/D9B75TA02.html

[Dowly]

US police also tends to shoot their own K9's, after they've been ordered to attack the suspect by an drunk off-duty officer via phone.

[AngusJS]

Originally Posted by Dowly

That's the first time I've heard someone call Bolero "arabian music". PARANOIA FTW!!!

Oh come on, it's a well known fact that Ravel had close ties to Al-Qaeda.

[AngusJS]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

note the change in the logo

Yeah, it's gone from the Serbian coat of arms to the Russian one, except the globus crucibus and St. George slaying the dragon, two Christian symbols, have been removed.

Russia has long been a supporter of Serbia, the latest instance of which was during the Yugoslavian war, when Milosevic, the leader of the SOCIALIST Party of Serbia, was president. The prime minister of Russia is Putin, a "former" GODLESS COMMUNIST.

Put it together. SOCIALISTS, COMMUNISTS, and ATHEISM, all on a web page for a private security company. They're obviously preparing for the godless Obamaian police state that's just around the corner. I can't believe Beck missed this!

That, or they were too cheap to make a logo of their own, so they just searched the internet for something that looked cool.

But seriously, wasn't privatization supposed to be a good thing? Isn't this the free hand of the market providing the product of security to consumer-citizens?

[Shearwater]

Originally Posted by Aramike

The problem is the benchmarks for both government and private companies.

In government, the result usually doesn't matter if you can spin it to make it seem positive.

In private companies, results don't usually matter if you can profit from it.

That's why I agree with privatization, mostly - and government regulation, in the cases that most directly affect the public business. Let the private companies use their approach to dollars and cents efficiency, while the government assures quality.

I disagree.
State-owned business exists to do things that are necessary, but do not pay off financially. Thus, the first thing they have to do is to provide certain goods or services for which they, in a manner of speaking, receive state-funded compensation. Now I'm well aware that a lot can (or rather could) be improved (speaking as someone who regularly works in a company that was privatized not so long ago and still has its traces of stately slothfulness). In any case, they are to be considered effective if they can manage to do the things they are supposed while keeping expenses at a minimum.
Private business on the other hand is there to make money, and to that end everything else is secondary. People don't sell cars or pork bellies because they believe that doing so is inherently good, but because they simply want to make money. In order to do that, business has to be effective in a capitalist sense, which means maximizing profits (obvious of course, so I hope I don't sound too lecturing ).
Anyway, that's the way I see it.
That said, I simply cannot understand how on Earth a private police force could possibly work - I mean: How do they make money? Charging fees for every crime they prevent? If it's just about governmental outsourcing, it is still worse, not least because it introduces yet another layer of administration.

Originally Posted by Shearwater

That said, I simply cannot understand how on Earth a private police force could possibly work - I mean: How do they make money? Charging fees for every crime they prevent? If it's just about governmental outsourcing, it is still worse, not least because it introduces yet another layer of administration.

How does Blackwater or Triple Canopy make money? The way I see it a police force would be much less risky of an endeavour and might be a much more lucrative in the long run. It's about claiming territory from the public sector and when that territory has been once claimed by the private sector it will be very difficult if not impossible for the public sector to get it back.

[Shearwater]

Originally Posted by OneToughHerring

How does Blackwater or Triple Canopy make money? The way I see it a police force would be much less risky of an endeavour and might be a much more lucrative in the long run. It's about claiming territory from the public sector and when that territory has been once claimed by the private sector it will be very difficult if not impossible for the public sector to get it back.

Companies such as Blackwater operate in foreign territory, so even if they can't be controlled as tightly as the regular military, they're abroad at least. In the case of a private police force operating in the interior, there would be no such safeguard.
The state's monopoly on violence has been at the end of a lenghty political and philosophical struggle. More than money or 'efficiency' is at stake here.